Contributors Announced for Open! the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2020

Written by Christele Harrouk
Published on February 20, 2020

The Russian Pavilion has announced its first list of contributors for the 2020 Venice Biennale. Selected after an open call, a new generation of architects will set up a temporary office within the pavilion, from May to November, creating an open workspace to plan the on-going architectural transformation.

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During the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, the Russian Pavilion will be under construction. In fact, it will host a temporary architectural office and will become an in-progress working site. Transforming from a “passive exhibition space into a platform for performance and exchange”, the pavilion will question how the Biennale “relates to national identity and cultural representation”.

Unveiling the complex histories concealed in the design process, the pavilion entitled Open! will reflect on the main theme of this year’s Biennale. In fact, it will provide a stage for various groups connected to the Pavilion: visitors, local organizations, temporary inhabitants, the city of Venice, flora, and fauna. While construction on the Pavilion is expected to start in November 2020, the completion of works is set for the spring of 2021.

Reflecting on the main theme of the 2020 Biennial – How will we live together? – the pavilion will act as a temporary institution and give shape to a new ‘spatial contract’ through an open and ever-changing dialogue and cross-pollination between the agents that will inhabit, work and interfere with Schusev’s architecture: from academics to craftsmen, from designers to activists, from visitors to local flora and fauna.

—Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli / Curator

Commissioner Teresa Iarocci Mavica, together with curator Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, had invited a collective of interdisciplinary teams to enter into a dialogue on the function and values of the Pavilion. With a temporary institution in place, both the physical space and the societal purpose of the Pavilion will be reconstructed. Read on for the first list of contributors. More names will be announced closer to the opening date of the Biennale.

KASA (Kovaleva and Sato Architects), a young Russian/Japanese architecture office, was selected out of an open call with over 100 submissions to set up their temporary office inside the Pavilion and work on a reconstruction of the building during the Biennale.

Lion & Unicorn, is a multidisciplinary collective that has initiated the development of a digital platform, a sort of chatbot that will allow any visitor to take on the roles of different actors surrounding the Biennale, providing insight into the mechanisms and relationships between countries, curators, institutions and the public.

Vladimir Nadein, curator and co-founder/producer of the Moscow International Experimental Film Festival (MIEFF), will be curating a selection of movies that will be screened in the garden of the Pavilion.

Mikhail Maximov is an artist and game designer based in Moscow and will present a version of his recently developed gaming platform called MOMAM (Museum of Modern Art Massacre) which will be on display in the Pavilion.

Pavel Milyakov (aka Buttechno) is a Moscow-based techno DJ/producer and will give an audiovisual performance during the opening week of the Biennale and participate in a talk.

Vladmir Rannev is a composer and will be working on a sonic image for the institution, generated through an interactive installation that will capture sounds originating from different sources inside and outside of the pavilion, engaging with its architecture and environment acoustically.